1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for transportation which can be used commonly and consistently for any transportation means such as an automobile, a railway car, a ship and so on and which can reduce easily and compactly the outer volume of the container when the container is empty.
2. Discussion of Background
In international transportation or domestic transportation, containers for transportation are often used in order to transport loads in association with several kinds of transportation means.
The containers are generally in a rectangular prism-like body, and dimensions of the portions including the height, the width and the length of the containers are internationally unified and standardized.
Generally, since the outer volume of the containers is not changed between a loaded state or a non-loaded state, it is disadvantageous in a transportation cost when an empty container is carried.
In order to improve such disadvantage, there has been proposed a so-called foldable container in which the outer volume can be reduced in a non-loaded state. The foldable container is constituted by a ceiling portion, a base portion, left and right side walls and front and rear end plates. The container can be assembled into a generally rectangular prism-like shape by using columns which are set up at four corners. Each of the structural pieces can be independently disassembled whereby the container can be folded in a compact form.
The conventional foldable type container has a problem as follows. Since each of the structural pieces can be independently disassembled when the container is not used and reassembled when used, the number of parts necessary for folding and reassembling is increased, and much labor is needed. Namely, the weight of the parts of the container constituted by a large number of structural elements is large, and it is necessary that the parts of the container must be treated by loading machines such as a crane, a fork lift or the like.